Begin Again: Alternate Beginning
by Mistress Ashley
Summary: This is an alternate beginning for Begin Again. More of a stand alone piece though you should read BA first. Character Death, dark themes, mild sadism & torture with a light sexual undertone ... It's a dark beginning.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter.

**AN:** This is just an alternate beginning ... a darker alternate beginning. It won't become its own story or anything like that. This is how I envisioned the original beginning going for Begin Again but once I started writing ... it changed (like most fics do) but it came back to me in the last few days so I decided to give it another try. XD

The rating is a bit higher as this beginning shows not only violence but a bare glimpse at Rissa's sadistic side. She does, after all, get off on others torture and pain.

This will probably be rewritten (don't know when) as I notice I jump around a bit and don't explain much.

* * *

Rissa watched as her mates ready the materials for the spell. They'd planned for months just to get to this point and they were finally ready to leave.

Rissa thought back to what had brought them to this point. The war was over - had been for a year now and the Triumvirate was going crazy. They had been made and bonded for war. There was no need for them in this peaceful time ... well, as peaceful as a society run by a Dark Lord could be. There was only a very small resistance left. The Triumvirate had crushed any uprising but now there was nothing for them to fight. Fighting was something they lived and breathed for, with nothing to fight, they'd slowly go crazy, picking fights with Death Eaters, and before they knew it, the world would be dead at their feet with nothing left for them to fight.

Her Father knew of this and that was why he'd proposed this idea. They'd go to a world where their skills were needed. One where they could fight all over again.

"It's ready." Lucius proclaimed as he twirled his wand one last time.

Rissa looked at the stone archway that would be the base for the portal. She studied their work, searching for anything they'd forgotten but found nothing. They were ready.

Her mates changed, bodies shifting to fur covered muscle. A snow leopard stood on her left and a white tiger to her right. Her mates would go before her to scout the area they would land.

Rissa raised her wand toward the archway and gave a hard jab. A shimmering blue portal grew larger until it filled the entire archway.

Rissa gave a nod of satisfaction. She'd been lucky to find the old book, the only book that had had a warning about this spell. The original book had said nothing about a base nor had any subsequent books but she'd stumbled upon the old book, more a journal than anything, which had warned any looking to try the spell. A base was needed to contain the portal or it would continue to grow, never stabilizing to a set world. An uncontained portal had the potential to consume the world, sending bits and pieces to various worlds in the Multiverse.

An explosion of sound from the front room almost deafened them. "Go!" Rissa shouted at her mates. She would hold off what was left of the Resistance while her mates scouted ahead. Rissa turned her wand to the door with a fierce expression upon her face.  
Her mates gave her unhappy growls as they followed her orders and made their way through the portal. She felt their connection dim with the distance but no even the distance of worlds could block it completely.

The door before her burst open in a shower of rock and wood and the last of the once mighty resistance stood before her. She watched them glance around the room quickly, seeing that her mates were nowhere in sight caused them so smirk smugly, gaining confidence. It would be their downfall.

The fight began with a simple disarming spell sent from on of the younger members, which Rissa parried with ease.

Rissa felt a cackle, eerily reminiscent of Bellatrix Lestrange - her 'mother', build in her throat. "Come now, you'll need to do better than that!" Power filled the air as spells shot at her from all directions, this was what they were meant for was her last coherent thought as she gave herself over to the blood lust singing through her veins. Her body moved and flowed, dodging and parrying spells before shooting off blasts of her own dark spells. Members of the resistance dropped around her as her wand blurred.

All movement stopped suddenly as only a small handful remained on their feet - Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shaklebolt, one or two of the older Weasleys and Rissa wasn't sure how they'd done it but Emmeline Vance, Hestia Jones, and Ronald Weasley. Rissa would never know how the younger Weasley had made it this far in the war. He wasn't particularly gifted and more than a fair bit lazy when it came to learning, always jumping headfirst into a fight and yet always somehow managing to come out with barley a scratch on him.

Well, she thought to herself, none would make it out alive today. What a wonderful good-bye gift for Father.

It was as they stood panting before her that she felt her mates through the bond. They'd made it through the portal delay and everything was safe on their side.

Rissa glanced at her opponents, sizing them up with satisfaction. They were all sporting injuries of various degrees of seriousness. If Rissa wasn't mistaken, Vance was mortally wounded; she wouldn't even be able to stand on her own soon. Moody was least wounded but even that wasn't by much as Rissa had concentrated most of her effort on taking him down.

It was time to put her backup plan into action and return to her mates. A twisting lunge put her in front of the archway's platform while a flick of her wand activated her present. A last thought was sent to her Father through the connection they shared, telling him to enjoy his present as she walked through the archway.

A disorienting second, minute, eternity, in nothingness before she was spit out the other side ... only to be bowled over as a body followed her out.

Damn it!! It was the younger Weasley. He'd gotten through the portal before it began to destabilize. Rissa had been hoping that the destabilization would begin immediately after she was within, thus preventing any from following her.

She wheezed out a laugh as she felt hands grip her throat as the body road her to the ground.

"What are you laughing at? You're going to die and I'll be hailed as a hero." The nasty, ineffectual sneer coming through the voice loud and clear.

It seemed the Weasley hadn't known where he was following her to and hadn't taken a moment to look up once arriving. Rissa's eyes locked with those of her mates as she felt the flames a second later. Vaguely, she wondered why the portal was still transmitting to this world when it should have closed by now.

Rissa heard the screams above her as Weasley took the brunt of the flames, leaving Rissa to feel only the barest of the searing heat - much thanks to the fire and heatproof charms on her robes. The flames were over almost as soon as they had begun and the shimmering light of the portal was dimming.

Rissa regained her feet regally with a quirk of her lips. She walked the few steps to crouch beside the whimpering body. "Did you like my present?" Her fingers trailed nails first down his blackened cheek, wringing a sharp scream from his throat. She forced hazy, pain shadowed eyes to meet hers as she smirked, malice radiating off her. "I'm sure brothers did. How does it feel to be the last of the Weasleys?" She asked innocently.

She watched breathlessly, wetting dry lips as realization set in and horror crept into his eyes. "I guess even breeding like rabbits couldn't save you." She turned to the white tiger, staring deeply into steel blue eyes before she gave a permissible nod and made her way to the snow leopard, fingers running through soft fur as they watched the scene before them. Both purred in their own way in anticipation of what was to come.

The tiger stalked its way towards its downed prey, walking ever-decreasing circles around the boy. Fur brushed hands and feet before it came closer, hot breath on the pale face had eyes opening, widening, to their last sight, breath caught as pearly teeth were revealed in a mockery of a smirk before they were buried in the soft flesh of the boy's throat.

The tiger, head high and tail swishing, walked back to an amused and mildly aroused Rissa. Its mouth was stained red with blood that was only smudged more when the tiger tried to lick it off with an even more bloody tongue. Another tongue quickly joined the cleaning as the leopard helped his fellow.

The sound of clapping had them spinning. In their enjoyment, they'd forgotten they weren't alone.

There sat upon a throne was a man, if he could be called a man and Rissa knew, even with the changes in appearance that he was this worlds version of her Father.

Her mates fell in step with her as she started the long walk to the length of the room. The Death Eaters before them scurried out of the way to make a path, her mates growling at any who were too slow or got too close.

Green clashed with red, judging, before Rissa dropped her eyes and body to the floor. Her mates crouching low to the ground next to her. "My Lord ... Father."

_Fin_

* * *

I think of the scene with Lucius and Ron like the scene in Narnia with Aslan and Jadis, the White Witch. You hear him growl and see a flash of teeth before he lunges. Of course, my versions a bit bloodier. XD


End file.
